What people DON'T tell you about the first year of marriage.

 When Tyler and I told people we were getting married, they, more often than not, had some not so reassuring things to say about the first year of marriage. They were quick to inform us that the first year isn't exactly one they care to reminisce about. Of course we understood that no marriage or relationship is 100% perfect every single day, but to sum up your entire first year of marriage as "rough" or a "doozy" seemed a little crazy to me. As of 12 days ago, Tyler and I have been married for a whole year and with 2017 right around the corner I decided I wanted to put a stop to that stigma and let you in on all of the wonderful, crazy, awesome things that the first year of marriage consists of. Things people don't tell you.

You're going to learn a lot. 

         Like a lot, a lot. You're going to learn that when you wake your husband up by laughing because he's sleep talking, he's not a happy camper. Even though it's so funny and cute. You'll also learn that he doesn't really snore in his sleep and you'll wonder if this is all too good to be true. You're going to learn that it's nearly impossible to have dinner decided on every single night, much less days ahead of time(or is that just me?). You'll learn which corners of the house are perfect to hide in, in order to pop out and scare them. You'll learn that your husband likes his coffee with literally only one drop of creamer and that he likes to sing in the shower.  In all seriousness though, you'll learn how to read each other inside and out. You'll learn every facial expression, tone of voice, and all of their body language. You'll memorize all of their birthmarks and wrinkles, their freckles and laugh lines. Ultimately you'll learn that marriage is an art form and at the risk of sounding cheesy, you two are the artists. How the picture turns out all depends on how patiently you paint it. So, be patient, caring, and kind because love is all of these things.

You're going to shed some tears.

  And that's completely okay because life happens and you'll inevitably go through some trying times. You might lose your childhood fur baby because of old age and that's a surefire way to get you down. You'll cry and your husband will shed a few tears with you because losing a pet is hard. He'll understand. He's so great like that. Just try to remember that what you're going through, they're going through too. That's what they signed up for, "for better or for worse." Don't push them away when things go awry, let them be there to lift you up. Now let us not forget about happy tears. I seriously can't tell you how many times Tyler has made me cry from laughing so hard. You'll laugh yourself to tears on your long car rides, while you're out shopping together, during your weekly Sunday breakfast dates and especially when you're deliriously lying in bed together talking about life at 2 in the morning. You'll(most likely.. if you're anything like us)share tears together, most happy, some sad, embrace them. Encourage them. Be vulnerable and love each other through it all. 

It's going to be the start of the foundation for which you build the rest of your marriage.

    Because of this, it's so important not to rush through it or take any moments for granted. You want to make sure your foundation is sturdy. Our first year of marriage flew by. I mean FLEW. Im okay with that because we enjoyed so much together. We moved to a new city, we traveled a lot, and met some cool people. We made mistakes and cleaned up a lot of messes. Literal messes. At one point I had to mop curry up off of the kitchen floor(If you want to refer back to one of those times I laughed so hard that I cried, this would be one of them) but that's okay because mishaps teach you how to handle life which is never going to be smooth sailing all of the time. Just don't forget that you and your spouse are a team, together you can take on anything.

It's going to be one of the best years of your life.

    I say ONE of the best years because while it might be a really great time in your lives, it's only going to get better from here on out. You're going to continuously grow and learn, you'll watch your spouse grow too and you'll wonder how it's even possible to love someone so much. You're going to have so much fun together. You're going to work hard and come home to each other after a long day of school and work just to pass out on the couch while watching FRIENDS. You'll go through all that life has to offer with your most favorite person right by your side. How exciting is that?!

I say all of this just to share with you some of the things I've been blessed to take away from our first year of marriage.

Patience is a virtue. Communication is KEY. Ask questions. Discuss things. Discuss everything. Never make assumptions. Never stop dating. Keep each other informed. Don't keep secrets. Be selfless. Never selfish. Last but not least, make the decision to love each other unconditionally every. single. day. 

Until next time, 

-MC  ♥

"We ate well and cheaply and drank well and cheaply and slept well and warm together and loved each other"- Earnest Hemingway, 'A Moveable Feast'

Work Hard, Travel Often, Never Lose Faith.

Tyler and I took off of work this week so we could spend some time with his family in Baton Rouge, before school consumes us. Unfortunately, come Sunday afternoon, Baton Rouge wasn't a safe place to go as so many places and roads were underwater. Our hearts were heavy when we heard his aunt and uncle weren't among one of the lucky ones. Water took over their home like it did thousands of others but they stayed safe and we're grateful for that! We'll hopefully be able to head down soon to help them clean up. 

Since we already had off of work, our bags were already packed, and Baton Rouge was momentarily out of the question, we decided to make the most of our days off. Sunday night, Tyler called his mom and she suggested several places to travel to. Once we finally decided on a place, we went to sleep with the intention to leave early Monday morning but it took us a while to get up and get going. As of 11:30 a.m. on Monday morning, "Hot Springs, Arkansas here we come!" We have this wild dream to visit all of the U.S. National Parks once we get done with school so we decided we would just get a head start. We arrived Monday evening and did a little sight seeing before we went to check into our hotel.

The cutest little house I've ever seen.

Monday night we drove to the top of west mountain to see the city lights. It was over 1,000 ft. above see level and as you can tell we literally had our heads in the clouds.

Tuesday is when the real adventures commenced. We ate, we climbed, we toured, and explored. A LOT. I also have this thing with eccentric/unique floors. You'll see this to be true in the next several pictures.

"The city takes its name from the natural thermal water that flows from 47 springs on the western slope of Hot Springs Mountain in the historic downtown district of the city. About 1,000,000 gallons of 143 °F water flows from the springs each day. The water percolates very slowly down through the earth’s surface until it reaches superheated areas deep in the crust and then rushes rapidly to the surface to emerge from the 47 hot springs...The hot spring water has been popularly believed for centuries to possess medicinal properties, and was a subject of legend among several Native American tribes."

I woke up with an extremely sore neck/shoulder on Sunday and it was STILL hurting by Tuesday, even after taking medicine. I fell in love with this water bottle because I refilled it with the hot water at every spring we came to and after a couple hours of applying heat on and off, my pain decreased drastically. Didn't take long to convince me that it actually is magical water or perhaps just the placebo effect but either way I felt better.

The next few pictures are from our tour of the Fordyce bath house. This building was used as a sort
of spa in 1915 through the 1960's. Men and women could come here and utilize the hot springs
by taking baths, getting massages, etc. The idea of bathing in front of several other women is
so strange to me but the interior was really pretty so there's that.

Trying to determine if this marble bench would fit in his backseat to bring home.

some extremely unsettling contraption in the "luxurious" Fordyce bath house.

Took a break for lunch at The Hungry Greek.

St. John Catholic church.

We ended the day with a trip to the aquarium. If anyone knows where to purchase a Pink Rose Urchin
I'm all ears.

Wednesday morning started with breakfast and then a trip to Gaven Gardens.

 It was magnificent to say the least.

Is anyone else obsessed with their husband? I just think he's so great. I was
blessed with the perfect life companion.

Tyler and I love going to thrift stores and Hot Springs has some pretty cool ones so, that's what we did for the rest of the day. We ate dinner at this amazing German restaurant called Steinhaus Keller. If you're reading this and you're planning to go to Hot Springs please please please go try it.

All in all, we had a great time during our short stay in Hot Springs. We are so blessed to be able to take trips with each other and we're relieved that we made it back safely through all of the rain yesterday. 

We've been saying a prayer every night for all of the people who have been impacted by the flooding.

May they never lose faith in this trying time.

Thanks for reading. Until Next time. ♥

-MC 

Be strong and courageous.

   First let me start by saying that I initially wanted to create a blog during the planning of mine and Tyler's wedding to be able to keep tract of all of the memories, needless stresses, and useful advice, in the hopes that one day I could look back on it all and reminisce. Well, as it usually does, life kind of got in the way and before we knew it our wedding was over, we had honeymooned, finished yet another semester of school, and I had still failed to create something I kept telling myself that I would. So, I apologize in advance for what might turn into a lengthy post but feel free to follow along.